Florida Gets Commitment From Denzel Aberdeen, Will Need Waiver

Florida got a surprising transfer portal commitment on Friday with guard Denzel Aberdeen announcing his return to Gainesville.

After winning a National Championship with the Gators in 2025, Aberdeen made the controversial decision to leave Florida for Kentucky, who reportedly offered the Orlando native a higher NIL figure than Golden and his staff was willing to match. Taking on a larger role at Kentucky, Aberdeen averaged 13.5 points and 3.4 assists while hitting 36% of his threes, often having the ball in his hands and being relied upon as a scorer for a team that struggled to create good shots efficiently. Overall it was a disappointing year for the Wildcats who finished 29th in KenPom and lost in the Round of 32, a far cry from what preseason expectations were given the reported amount of money they had to spend. Injury issues did play a role, particularly the loss of guard Jaland Lowe and Jayden Quaintance.

Notably, Aberdeen was in the class of 2022 and just completed his senior season and technically is out of eligibility. In order to actually play the upcoming season he will need a waiver from the NCAA, and while it may seem like a challenge at the moment, Florida is ready to fight for it and see what happens. The NCAA has shown to be beatable in court, and Florida is willing to challenge them in order to potentially get a proven commodity in the backcourt. The case Florida makes will be centered around the fact Aberdeen played just 41 total minutes as a freshman, even though he appeared in 12 games which is above the threshold for a redshirt to be granted. Technically the NCAA does not account for minutes, just games, when it comes to granting redshirts–but Florida will try to make a case the 41 minutes was due to something like an injury and that will give a shot at a waiver.

After guard play was lacking last season, the Gators decided they’d rather take someone they were familiar with than roll the dice once more, and even if there isn’t more offensive juice to be squeezed from Aberdeen’s game he still is a capable ball handler, shot maker, and defender who had championship experience in Gainesville.

There is no timeline on when the Gators could hear about a waiver for Aberdeen, with these cases sometimes going all the way into the fall. Many around the country think the Aberdeen case will not warrant a waiver, though others will point to the NCAA’s general vulnerability in court and say there is always a chance.

Florida is continuing to work the portal while also seeing if they can retain some of their key pieces from last season, and bringing in a familiar face from the championship season could be part of the pitch.